During the year of the war, the enterprises of the SCM investment group, the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation and the Shakhtar football club donated UAH 5 billion in support of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and war-affected Ukrainians, the group said on Wednesday.

According to it, assistance to the defenders of Ukraine is provided, first of all, under the military project Rinat Akhmetov's Steel Front.

"For SCM, this issue is especially important, because more than 13,000 employees of the company's businesses have joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Thanks to the initiative, law enforcement units from all over the country receive ammunition, cars, drones, special technical equipment (thermal imagers, rangefinders, cameras, etc.), fortifications, clothes and shoes, first-aid kits and tourniquets, walkie-talkies, fuel and other necessary things," the report notes.

Metinvest, in particular, has developed and mass-produces modular shelters for soldiers on the front line, capable of withstanding even an artillery shell. More than 100 such products have already been delivered to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The metallurgical group has also mastered production of armored steel. At present, every tenth body armor is made of Metinvest steel - about 170,000 in total.

In addition to the total assistance of UAH 5 billion, Akhmetov allocated additional UAH 1 billion ($25 million) to the already launched project Heart of Azovstal - part of the Steel Front. It is aimed at helping servicemen of units that have been in the garrison of completely surrounded Mariupol since February until May 2022. Under the project programs, support will be provided to both the defenders of the city and the families of prisoners, missing and dead military personnel.

"DTEK returned the light to about 7 million families in a year, and Ukrtelecom is doing everything necessary to provide Ukrainians with access to communication services. For example, Internet services are available in 87% of Ukrainian settlements covered by the company's network. Some 60% of the company's subscribers already have a non-volatile Internet," the SCM notes.

The Rinat Akhmetov Foundation donated tens of thousands of blood containers, as well as hundreds of thousands of medicines and about half a million food packages to the people of Ukraine. In total, by the decision of Akhmetov, 800,000 food kits will be handed over to Ukrainians.

In addition, the Foundation is the founder of the Museum of Civilian Voices - the largest archive of Ukrainian testimonies about the military events against the Russian aggressor, which contains more than 60,000 stories of people.

The Shakhtar football club also provides systemic assistance to athletes, migrants, soldiers of the Defense Forces of Ukraine. Thus, as part of the Shakhtar Global Tour for Peace series of games, the club raised UAH 44 million to help Ukraine. Together with the European Football for Development Network, Shakhtar initiated the European Football Powers Up Ukraine project, a campaign to collect generators for Ukrainian residents.

The Shelter Center created by the club for migrants from the front-line regions operates at the Arena Lviv stadium. Shakhtar also organized and covered all expenses for the treatment in the United States of Azovstal's defender, marine Mykhailo Dianov.

In addition, in 2022, enterprises and businesses of the SCM investment group paid UAH 73.2 billion in taxes to the budgets of all levels.